Milk is the white liquid that female mammals produce to feed their babies. When you pour milk on your cereal or drink a glass of cold milk with cookies, you're usually drinking cow's milk, though people also drink milk from goats, sheep, and other animals. Human mothers produce milk for their babies too.

Milk contains proteins, fats, vitamins, and calcium that help young mammals grow strong bones and healthy bodies. A baby calf drinks its mother's milk until it's old enough to eat grass. Human babies drink their mother's milk or formula (which is designed to be similar to human milk) before they can eat solid food.

The word also describes liquids that look like milk. Coconut milk is a white liquid made from coconut. Soy milk and almond milk are plant-based drinks that look like milk but don't come from animals.

To milk something means to squeeze milk out of an animal, like when farmers milk their cows each morning. But people also use this as a metaphor: if someone milks a joke, they keep telling it long after it stops being funny. When someone milks a situation, they try to get every possible advantage from it, sometimes in a way that feels excessive or unfair.